Tag: Pr

Obama, it is said, takes himself to be something like a benevolent monarch—a king in a mixed constitutional system, where the duties of the crown are largely ceremonial. He sees himself, in short, as the holder of a dignified office to whom Americans and others may feel naturally attuned.

That’s what MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell said on his show last week, when he admitted to his viewers that Donald Trump’s recent “presidential tour” was never anything but a PR campaign by NBC to promote the next season of Trump’s show, “The Apprentice.”

In a biting bit of Israeli comedy, this video shows an Israeli kindergarten class that learns, for example, the perils of disillusioned leftism and the proper way to describe an Arab (“Sorry, I meant demographic threat ... ”).

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is on a kick to improve his country’s standing in Europe. His strategy? Develop a cadre of “allies” abroad who will serve as walking PR agents for Israeli policy.

The U.S. is providing the largest humanitarian response of any country to the devastating flooding in Pakistan, but its goodwill isn’t altogether altruistic. Part of the motivation is to clean up the American image in a country where 68 percent of the people have a negative view of the U.S.

So, we get that there might be some “tummy-friendly” benefits to drinking dark-roasted coffee. However, this Science News article extolling the virtues of the duskier blends lays it on a bit thick on the pro-coffee front, mentioning little in the way of possible side effects. (continued)

Rick Santorum is thinking of running for president, but he has a serious PR problem. The former senator’s rampant homophobia inspired sex columnist Dan Savage to launch a campaign to usurp the conservative’s name. The result: If you type “Santorum” into Google, you’ll find that, in addition to a former senator, it refers to ...

A 2006 memo from the State Department to the U.S. Transportation Command suggested holding Guantanamo detainees after they had been cleared in order to avoid bad press. “Got it ... Thank you,” was the reply, and indeed, no prisoners flew out of Guantanamo for three months.

The Bush administration’s skill in working the media to promote its interests is not a new story, but The New York Times has just uncovered a new twist: According to the paper, administration insiders courted a troop of retired military men to serve as trained PR agents for the White House on major broadcast outlets.

A Blue Cross exec sent out a memo with talking points to help company employees handle the fallout resulting from filmmaker Michael Moore’s scathing take on the American healthcare system, “SiCKO”—and Moore got his hands on it. Oops! (H/t: Crooks and Liars)

A young Oxford graduate and wannabe foreign correspondent describes his summer internship working in the Green Zone of Iraq for the Lincoln Group, the company that has been paying Iraqi media to run news stories favorable to the U.S.